Art, and its many tangents

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In my opinion, creativity is the root of an artist. But sometimes people struggled, how did that happens? How can you find your way back to reconnect to the creativity? Her e is an article I found on PsychologyToday, it tells you the art of creativity. For example, if you get an empty mind, you are connected to the creativity. Fun to read! Click Here

Marina Bychkova, her dolls can be called art. All the dolls are handmade by her, different than other barbies or BJD dolls, her dolls are made by ceramics, hand painted dialectally. When a buyer purchases a doll, usually the doll comes up with costumes and accessories such as shoes, jewelry etc. And quote from that article you can see how gorgeous her work is, well, somebody might find it’s creepy : )

“She uses 24K gold, sterling silver, Austrian crystals as well as gold-lined seed beads and gemstones such as rubies, emeralds, pearls and more to adorn her doll’s gowns. She never uses glue. Every tiny seed bead and every gem is sewn onto the fabric by hand. Generally, it takes between 150 to 350 hours to complete a costume.”

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts holds a series called ConVerge, in which there is a monthly gathering featuring creative and generative social art practices FOR FREE. ConVerge is where community and innovative multi and inter-disciplinary art practices come together in public spaces in an interactive and experimental way designed to engage the audiences.

Here are their upcoming events for May and June:

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May 14th, 2014

ConVerge: Oth and Infrasound

4pm – 8pm

Grand Lobby FREE

Organized in conjunction with the exhibition ‘Jacqueline Kiyomi Gordon: It Only Happens All the Time,’ ConVerge investigates sound’s relationship to the body through special performances by Oth and Infrasound. Oth is an all-female group whose performances incorporate dance, sculptural installation-based electronic instruments, multi-channel video installations and robotics to investigate technologies hold on contemporary life.

Infrasound is a spatial acoustic concert series initiated and performed by Scott Arford and Randy Yau, one that provides a framework for exploring the complex relationship between sound, space, perception and the body. Demanding the audience to ‘hear with their body,’ Infrasound investigates the possibility of sound, especially low frequencies, to measure the capacity if architecture; it is about the physicality of sound and the physical experience of sound.

In many cultures, Midsummer’s Eve is a time when both plants and planets offer a special opportunity to tune into nature, the seasonal shift, and take a moment for personal reflection. Inspired by this tradition, artist Paz de la Calzada has created an elixir of crystals and herbs that can be used to support a personal experience with ‘The Nomadic Labyrinth.”

“The Nomadic Labryinth” is an interactive public art project that consists of a large-scale labyrinth sculpture of precisely cut carpet. This mobile ongoing project not only explored the integration of drawing and architecture, but serves as a walkable path for the public to explore as an urban meditation. The public and community members are invited to explore, walk or meditate in the labyrinth and experience art as a transformational tool.

Inspired in an Arabic formal pattern, the carpets used in this design have been collected from several recycling companies in the Bay Area and they represent decorative classic western patters.

“For the design of this labyrinth I was interested in the juxtaposition of two different cultural patterns, creating a movable, meditative environment where carpet from archetypical western places like the Ritz Carlton meet an inventive Arabesque.” -Paz de la Calzada

Now this seems like common sense, but it seems like we do it less and less. Second hand information from something you read on someone’s Facebook status seems like how many people get “informed.” But as we can all testify that might not be the best course of action. That information could be wrong, outdated, phrased wrong, read wrong etc.

Why don’t we research it ourselves or read the article, what has stopped us from reading the news, is it because we don’t have time for it, because we don’t care? Well I’m not really interested in the whys but I am interested in demanding that we become more informed and that means leaving all of our excuses at the front door. We live in an area where essentially everything is at our fingertips I’ve recently and we need to start taking advantage of it.

We always talk about the artist citizen and what that means, how are we meant to be participants in art in a global scale when we don’t know what’s going on globally.

How do we change this trend?

Its simple and easy read one article day, just start with one and it can be about anything that is happening around you and or globally.

Find a news feed online that you already enjoy reading, challenging yourself with topics that aren’t the norm for you to read. It’s also really important to note that you should also read world news as well. Sometimes its really easy to just focus on your community/ country and completely forget about the rest of the world.

Maybe some of you have seen this video before, it’s been on youtube for a while, but I thought I’d share it since it’s interesting. The video is an experiment where a scientist is attempting to find the origins of Schizophrenic behavior within some of the properties and affects of LSD. It’s hard to say if he is right. The scientist appears mistaken since the test subject (an artist of all people) just acts silly like anyone on LSD. All though it looks as if he was either given a really high dosage, because he cry in ecstasy a few times, or the whole thing is faked and these are actors.

Have you ever thought about displaying your work in a museum of contemporary art? Well a few years ago, i was fortunate enough to stumble across an interesting competition put on by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. I encourage everyone to enter it as it is a very easy way to get that MOCA title on your resume ;) Keep making good work!!

In February of 2013, I returned to my elementary “pen pals” ways of writing letters, when a good friend of mine was sent to prison for an unjust and unbelievably long sentence (No worries this is not what we will be discussing). The idea of losing contact with this friend of mine shocked and saddened me, as well as made me feel like there was nothing I could do for him.

Who would have known that this would uproot my love for mail and writing letters? Not only has it sparked my letter writing with him, but with family and friends as well.

Just this week I received a letter from my friend. The feeling I get when I take my small silver key, slip it into my mail box lock and open the door to find a pristine, white envelop, that hardly shows its journey, waiting for me. It feels like I have opened the winning door in a game show to a car or some luxurious vacation. Cracking open the envelope takes me to a different world. It separates me from my daily life, daily routines, and daily living. Catching up with a friend, hearing what classes he is taking, new jobs, new flings, and sharing his newest poetry, are just a few of the things my friend and I exchange. Seeing his handwriting, where he erased, where he wrote harder or softer or feeling the paper connects us even though we haven’t seen each other in over a year. We’ve grown closer and long for the next letter as soon as the latest one arrives.

Having this experience to connect with your own thoughts and feelings, share stories with someone far away that voice communication isn’t as easy, has become really special to me. I’ve even notices, as Hollywood and cheesy this is, but as I read the letters I hear the voice of the individual as well as feel their presence.

I almost feel like starting this blog post with “Back in my day…..when letters were a thing.” I can almost see the face of the new age teens staring at me blankly not understanding what I’m even talking about. The art of it is being lost and it makes me sad to see such a beautiful thing gone. I remember when I was young, my mom pulling out an old beautiful box filled with wonderful collection of letters her dad wrote her mom while serving in the Air force. Having never met my grandfather, yet hearing the stories about him and reading his own words creates an unusual bond to him and makes me sometimes believe that I’ve known him. What will we have to show in the future? I can’t image pulling all the digital files of “deleted” (is anything really deleted or trashed any more/) emails or text messages from loved ones to show the younger generation. Or maybe the message will just flash in front of our eyes, because that seems crazy enough. This just makes me think of all the empty forms of communication we have now a days. I’ll leave you on that digitally transmitted note I write for a digital blog that will only be digitally viewed.

This weekend amongst all the stress accompanying finals and the end of the semester I was able to take a little break and visit my home for a short time. While home I was invited to a party to celebrate the birthdays of my parents with a 60s themed party. Here are some trends present at the party; fondue, too many patterns for the mind to make sense of, long hair, tie-dye, twinkies that will remain in their same state for the next 30 years, the music of The Beatles and Cream, and a lot of laughs. Being a youngster myself I never got to live through those crazy years, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t ready to don my patterned 60s dress. I went for a more mod style with a hot pink a-line dress. My father went back to his early days and wore a wig of long brown hair (to compensate for the bald head he sports now), with small granny glasses and a headband. Also present fashion wise were long flowing shirts with fringed vests, rose tented glasses, and flower power head scarfs. Peace signs greeted the guest wherever they ventured, hanging from the ceilings, on buttons worn by guests, and from the guests themselves. The finale of the party was the screening of The Beatles’ animated movie “Yellow Submarine,” a movie that took everyone on a trip and could only have been created through the use of questionable extra curricular activities. All in all it was a great time and a blast from the past. Maybe in another thirty years we will open the time capsule again and still see those twinkies still sitting in their “fresh” state.